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How is time organized in a novel? We were discussing the organizing principle(s) for a novel recently in one of my writing groups. Today I thought about a few books that I read recently and how they were […]
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When Valentine’s Day comes around, I think about Ophelia’s madness and a particular song she sings in Act 4, Scene 5 of Hamlet. At a surface level, the song is Ophelia’s sly, defiant blast at Hamlet’s rejection. Most […]
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2025 was an amazing year for writing. In January, I finished the first draft of the novel I’ve been working on since 2021. In March, I dove into a ten-month class on novel revision. A second draft was […]
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Brooding over the question of why werewolves bite.
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I appreciate the craft in Jonathan Franzen’s novel Crossroads. Franzen can make complicated sentences live on the page. He excels at weaving flashbacks into narrative. Much of Crossroads takes place over one day, following five members of a […]
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The class critique of my first-draft manuscript is over – now the work begins for a second revision! The critique entailed receiving feedback in the form of letters and annotations on the manuscript – eight people’s feedback, our […]
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Genre in fiction can be a slippery beast. Sometimes I don’t know what to say when people ask me in what genre I write. I usually say that I am broadly writing in the fantasy genre. Sometimes I […]
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My reading for the week has been a book on syntax, and it is delightful. You might think that a sentence that contains both “syntax” and “delightful” is somehow in error. Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style by Virginia […]
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Several years ago, one of my writing buddies asked me if I had a playlist for the novel-in-progress. “A what?” I asked. “Is that a thing?” Turns out it was a thing. Inspired by my friend Jeff, who […]
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Death of the Author by Nnedi Okorafor weaves two plotlines that are related, though owing to a twist at the end (no spoilers here), are related in a surprising way. The heart of the book is the power […]
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